Korristan
'Korristan ' is a Middle Eastern nation located between Iran and Afghanistan. It has gone through numerous regime changes and types of government through out its history. Fall of the Ottoman Empire and Independence Korristan was for many centuries a part of the Ottoman Empire, after the Ottomans' fall at the conclusion of World War I it was occupied by the French. In 1943, a nationalist revolution rose and overthrew the French-backed President Rasheed Sarbanri, who was an ethnic Pashtun and whose ancestors hailed from northeastern Iran (in contrast to the majority of the population who are ethnic Tajiks, trace their ancestries back to Afghanistan, and speak Farsi). Jamshid Latifi, a prominent leader in the pro-independence movement then assumed the presidency. In his inaugural address, Latifi declared that Korristan (which it began being called under the Sarbanri government by the French colonists of Albanian descent who called it the “land of reapers” due to the country having many impoverished deathly looking farmers. “Korr” being the Albanian word for reap and “-istan” being a suffix in Farsi denoting a place) would be a “nation of Tajiks!” He also stated that from then on he would be named Firuz Tajik (literally “victorious tajik”). President Tajik’s Nationalist Revolutionary Movement became the dominant political party not long after and soon effectively established a one-party state. Despite these authoritarian moves by President Tajik and his persecution of Pashtuns, he portrayed himself as a westernized leader in the Middle East, specifically in the mold of Mustafa Kemal of Turkey presenting himself as a nationalist, secularist, and republican. Western nations such as the United States then turned a blind eye for many decades because of his secularism and republicanism. However this changed in 1964 after nearly two decades of militarization, when Tajik’s government unsuccessfully attempted to annex portions of Iran and Afghanistan. Failure to annex these neighboring countries caused a drastic decline in support for Tajik’s regime (although he still retained a slim majority of public support). From 1973 to 1978, President Tajik ratcheted up tensions with Afghanistan as it had a Pashtun nationalist government. Diplomatic intervention by the Soviet Union (which had leverage in both Pakistan and Afghanistan) ultimately led to Tajik backing down. Consequently, the Soviet Union secured influence in Korristan and many citizens began to become supportive of communist ideas. President Tajik (albeit reluctantly) brought a number of Soviet-backed advisors into his inner circle. President Tajik became increasingly paranoid from 1979 to 1980, perceiving enemies everywhere he looked including in his inner circle and even his own immediate family. Democratic People’s Republic of Korristan In 1980, The Korristani Democratic People’s Front (KDPF) with the support of the Soviet Union and the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan were able to overthrow President Tajik, lynching him in the streets of Korristan’s capitol city, Zabol. Reza Noor Sharif, General Secretary of the KDPF assumed the presidency. Sharif who was of both Tajik and Pashtun descent stated that he would “usher in a new era of equality, community, and peace”. Under the communist regime, the persecution of Pashtuns ended, state atheism was declared, and women were granted equal rights under the law. Korristan’s primarily agricultural economy was collectivized during this period as well. However, the communists were just as violent as Tajik: imprisoning political opposition, murdering journalists, publicly executing Mullahs, and destroying any religious landmarks. Although the KDPF was able to hold power in Korristan for over a decade, many in the country in truth opposed them due to their policy of state atheism and persecution of both the Muslim majority and all religious minorities. Eventually, in 1989 a group of mujahideen rose in opposition to General Secretary Reza Noor Sharif. Fighting a bloody and costly rebellion in the countryside for three years, the mujahideen were reinvigorated by a new willingness to support them due to the collapse of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991. The mujahideen were ultimately victorious on August 17, 1992 (four months after the mujahideen in neighboring Afghanistan overthrew the communist regime there). Reza Noor Sharif was shot and killed in a public execution in the Presidential Palace on August 18, 1992. From there the mujahideen factions called into session a loya jirga (an emergency grand assembly to determine a new head of state, adopt a new constitution, and to settle other issues of the war). Islamic Emirate of Korristan In a shocking upset, the grand assembly chose the ultraconservative Salafi, Zalman Abduh Islam and his Pure Islamic Coalition over pro-Western moderate, Omar Hazrat Nassour and his Wasat Party of Korristan. Abduh Islam assumed office as temporary President of the provisional government shortly after and was supposed to serve for four months until the democratic elections that December. However, he began to consolidate his power and declared a fatwa on Nassour ordering him to be executed for heresy. He ultimately was executed in the Spring of 1993, with his wife, Mariam and young daughter, Wajma being exiled and granted asylum by the United Kingdom. Adbul Islam imposed a strict form of Sharia law upon the nation and renamed it The Islamic Emirate of Korristan. Emir Abduh Islam’s regime became known for its radical Islam, state-sponsored terrorism, authoritarianism, and the oppression of women (largely due to the state-sponsored attack by Awad Ja'far Deeb who was extradited by the United States and charged with the shooting death of Jamie Cochran, the Chargé d'Affaires to Korristan as well the deaths of a number of other embassy employees in October 1998). In September 2001, nine months into his first term, U.S. President Tom Stanton fulfilled a foreign policy campaign promise to officially cut diplomatic ties with Korristan due to what occurred in 1998. In retaliation, Abduh Islam ordered the Independence Day Attacks of 2003 on New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia where a group of terrorists set off explosives under the cover of three of the nation’s largest Fourth of July fireworks displays. These attacks in turn sparked a global “War on Terror” and caused a hawkish shift in foreign policy within the Stanton administration. War in Korristan After getting intel from military intelligence, President Stanton ordered that Korristan be named a state sponsor of terrorism and later ordered the 2004 Invasion of Korristan in which Emir Abduh Islam was assassinated by coalition forces (including the United States and opposition forces such as Wasat Party-aligned militias). Despite the assassination of Abduh Islam, the War in Korristan continues to this day. U.S. forces began to withdraw in 2017 under President Mark Hollis and scheduled to be completely withdrawn by the year 2020. After the assassination of Abduh Islam, U.S. Army General Isaac M. Paulson was then appointed by President Stanton as Special Envoy to Korristan for Humanitarian Aid and Interim Administrative Affairs on March 3, 2005 in order to handle the ensuing destabilization and internal conflict. This made Paulson the country's chief executive authority and also allowed him to rule by decree. President Stanton was criticized across the political spectrum for allowing this with Americans on the right and the left condemning as “imperialism” and “a military dictatorship”. Reacting to pressure, Stanton contacted General Paulson who then (albeit nearly a year after assuming the post) signed Interim Administrative Affairs Order Number 4 which established the Korristani Provisional Assembly for Oversight and Legislative Affairs “in order to ensure representation of the Korristani people and establish separation of powers”. Despite anger over U.S. policy the biggest concern for people including the President was the fact that Abduh Islam’s Pure Islamic Coalition, now a designated terrorist organization known as Al-Naqia still had hold over roughly 45% of the nation’s territory. A comprehensive plan of action was devised to combat Al-Naqia. However, it was criticized by Stanton's conservative political opponents for giving “little to no autonomy to commanding officers on the ground”. On July 18, 2006 General Paulson was instructed to hand over executive powers to Hakim Shah Sahib, Governor of the Provisional Assembly for Oversight and Legislative Affairs. Governor Sahib then assumed the role of Acting President of Korristan a day later. A formal presidential election was held in December of that year. However, legislative elections to the new National Assembly were postponed due to ongoing warfare and the divided control of territory in the country. A formal presidential election was held in December of that year. However, legislative elections to the new National Assembly were postponed due to ongoing warfare and divided control of territory in the country so the provisional assembly remained in place. The winner of the Korristani presidential election was a populist oil magnate and provisional assemblyman named Hussein Ahmed Abdullah who’s National Unity Rally (NUR), a disparate coalition of populist politicians from across the political spectrum would later gain a legislative majority. He was initially seen as a supporter of the United States and was able to work with President Stanton. However, Stanton would mostly spend their overlapping tenures trying to keep U.S. forces in the country for peacekeeping and oversight since U.S. intelligence discovered that many high ranking officials were suspected of corruption, espionage, drug trafficking, and in some cases facilitating Al-Naqia. Due to eventual rifts between the two leaders, President Abdullah and the NUR began to adopt increasingly Pro-Iran stances.